„The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors; Or, Christianity Before Christ“, is an 1875 book written by American freethinker Kersey Graves, which asserts that Jesus was not an actual person, but was a creation largely based on earlier stories of deities or god-men saviours who had been crucified and descended to and ascended from the underworld. Parts were reprinted in The Book Your Church Doesn't Want You to Read edited by Tim C. Leedom in 1994, and it was republished in its entirety in 2001. The book is often used as a source by Christ myth theory proponents, such as Dorothy M. Murdock, Tom Harpur, and John G. Jackson. Many of the same theories espoused in the book are repeated in the documentaries „The God Who Wasn't There, The Pagan Christ, Zeitgeist: The Movie and Religulous.“ American Atheists leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair was a fan of the book. While modern-day American historian Richard Carrier found the book to be incomplete, he appreciated some of its points.

Also on this topic, read the books:

„Creating Christianity - A Weapon Of Ancient Rome“ by Henry Davis

„Creating Christ: How Roman Emperors Invented Christianity“ by James Valliant and Warren Fahy

Certain writers have suggested that the Templars were following the Johannite or Mandaean heresy – which denounced Jesus as a ‘false prophet’ and acknowledged John as the true Messiah. In the course of their activities in the Middle East the Templars undoubtedly established contact with Johannite sects, and the possibility of Johannite tendencies in the Order is not altogether unlikely. This idea was taken up b:

Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince: The Templar Revelation. Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ

Lynn Picknett, Clive Prince: The Masks of Christ: Behind the Lies and Cover-ups About the Life of Jesus

They wrote that Johannitism was the great secret of the Templars. Johannites – as the above quote shows – consider that John the Baptist was the ‘true Christ’ and the Jesus was a usurper of his role and authority. They are still represented today by a people known as the Mandaeans – the world’s only surviving gnostic religion – who were, until the Gulf War, largely confined to the southern marshes of Iraq and Iran. The Johannites are mentioned in brief passages of the New Testament, in arguments over who is the true Messiah between Jesus and John the Baptist. In Luke 7:18 – 23 John (who, we are told, has earlier met Jesus and fallen at his feet) sends a message to Jesus saying “Art thou he that should come or do we wait for another?” Shortly after this John is killed apparently to appease the whim of Salome. Some Johannites believe that Christ and/or his followers killed John and took over the church that he had created. This belief is called the Great Heresy.

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